The Orchid Recovery Center is a complete Rip off. Do yourself a favor and if you are considering going there, stop right now.
Lets where where should i start. The admissions process. During this time, i explicitly asked before i entered, what percentage of patients successfully complete the program, and their admissions cousnelor Loren, who looks like an active addict, she chain smokes cigarettes and acts like your best friend, super caring, etc this woman has no problem lying straight to your face, what makes matters worse is that the people she lies to are in the worst state and in short she is taking advantage of this. Anyways, she makes a number of lies... 1) she lied about the percentage of people who successfully stay off drugs and alcohol claiming greater than 80 percent. I found this not to be true because while i was there for almost 60 days, many of the woman were already back there for their 2nd or 3rd times.
Additionally i specifically asked her what percentage of patients complete their 30 day program. She looked at me as if i was crazy to ask that and said that all patients do... Here is the fact: Not 2 hours after i had checked in there, they were kicking out another woman. What i quickly found out about the Orchid is that they intentionally have this pattern where they basically during group session meetings will cause all of the patients to lash out at each other and develop real anger and fights, and they encourage this, yet the moment that you get all heated, they start threatening to kick you out and ultimatley they just literally kick the patients out almost daily WITH NO REFUND and just kick you to the street. They do this so they can free up beds so they can cycle through more patients and make more money.
During the almost 60 days i was there, this occured at least 15 times, where basically they kicked patients (and these are all woman who are very fragile) out for the most miinor of issues. What is so ironic is they claim to have all this compassion and expertise, yet they really have none of either... If they did, they would truly work with the patient through this time... What drug or alcohol addict isnt going to have erratic behavior that needs to be dealt with?
Then there was my counselor, her name was melissa. She was a former drug addict, like many counselors are, however melissa musta easily weighed 350 pounds. I point this out because she is a poster child for addiction transference and how this place could think that she should be counseling others is beyond me... The other thing is she constantly felt the need to remind people that she came from a super rich family, etc... Who cares... Go on a diet
Then there was the "accomodations/housing"... Honestly this place was a COMPLETE dump, actually worse than that... 1) It's literally located in a neighborhood of crack houses. I was shocked to see that they would locate our housing one of the most dumpy, run down, and quite frankly scary neighborhoods in south florida. For this reason alone i would never step foot back in there. The house was infested with all kinds of insects from ants and mosquitos to these massive cockroach looking things called palmetto bugs, that can "fly" like 10-20 feet in s ingle jump... I turned on the shower one day and out of the drain one of them came out and scared the life out of me. I refused to use that shower ever again during my stay.
And the fact that there was drug dealing going on all around the immediate neighborhood was just riduclous. We would point it out to our counselors and they would just say there is nothing they can do about it, etc... Lets see what else about the housing? Well, 1) it's a complete dump, all of the furniture and beds, etc are like 20 years old looking. It almost reminded me of summer camp, but it was unfortunatley even worse and less comfortable..
The food was absolutely deplorable
They treat you like cattle.
They have in house recreation amenities, and have to shuttle you in this beaten down van everywhere you go
The owner of this whole place is completely clueless and a con-artist. She was barely ever there, and would act "above" everyone else, her aloofness was just out of control. Every single staff member there completely trashed her behind her back as well.
One further peice of evidence about how they could care less about the patients they have. During the first call/consultation they had with my family after i had checked in, not 10 days into this program, the VERY FIRST THING MY so called counselor Melissa hit my parents up for was to tell them that i needed more than 30 days there and that because they are so busy there that it would be wise for them to comit to another 30 days for me there then to make sure it was secured... She hsa the nerve to tell them that before telling them ANYTHING else... Then she tells them if they comit to another 30 days that we have to pay for it, IN FULL, right then and there... What they dont tell you is there is a NO REFUND policy...
So after about 2 weeks there i figured out the whole scam... Basically they get you to give them 17,500 for "treatment"... They act like your best friend and savior when you are looking into the place, but the moment you are admitted they become your warden, your judge, your jury, and your exectioner. Then they schedule a family consultation about 2 weeks into the 30 days, they tell the family that you are doing well but need more time there and it's wise to comit to it now to ensure that they can have you stay when your time is up and that you need to pay in full now as well if you want to do that...
Then basically for almost 100 percent of the woman that were there during the almost two months i was there, they basically wait til you are really weak and then they start poking you emotionally til you cant take it anymore and you freakout and then they throw you out and claim a variety of bullsh*t reasons why they are doing so... Over my two months there only 25 percent maybe of the woman ever rightfully "graduated" from there... All the others either were kicked out or dropped out...
Ladies beware!!! This place is a complete rip-off and there are many other better treatment options for you.
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